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An assistant manager at a Buffalo fast-food restaurant who brought an unlicensed loaded handgun to work and accidentally shot himself in the leg during what a judge described as an idiotic incident was sentenced Thursday to 3½ years in prison for second-degree weapon possession.

State Supreme Court Justice Christopher J. Burns imposed the minimum prison term on Akeem Wallace, 23, of Lasalle Avenue, who had faced a maximum of 15 years.

The judge noted that Wallace had no prior criminal record and that the case did not involve a street crime.

Prosecutors said Wallace was socializing June 9 in the dining area at the McDonald’s restaurant on Grider Street near East Delavan Avenue when his gun discharged, sending customers fleeing and wounding him in the leg.

After calling the shooting an idiotic incident, the judge told Wallace, “I don’t know if you were showing off.”

The judge had found Wallace guilty on March 31 following a nonjury trial.

Wallace testified at trial that he brought the gun to work because of recent robberies at the restaurant, but restaurant employees contradicted that claim, according to prosecutors.

He had told police earlier that he was carrying the gun because he had been shot at a bus stop, prosecutors said.